After an attempted sacrifice by the Fifth Church makes it clear that the Foundation is running out of time, Evan makes one final, desperate plea to Jerry to help save the world.
Evan
Evan wakes up several hours after he collapsed. He finds himself in a lightly used bed in the back of a Foundation transport. Rainer is sitting on an adjacent bed, which is much messier and better used. He has a book open—one of those tactical manuals he likes to read and re-read—but he notices right away when Evan wakes up.
He smiles. “Good, you’re awake,” he says.
Evan sits up, rubbing his head. “How long?” he asks.
“A good, solid, healthy, twelve hours,” Rainer says.
“Crap,” Evan says. “How many events did I miss? How many cures did I—”
“You’ve been working hard for weeks,” Rainer says. “You got exhausted. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
Well, when you put it that way, it sounds almost understandable. Evan rubs his eyes. Understandable or not, his nap is over. “Where are we?” he asks.
“Albuquerque,” Rainer says. “We got here a few hours ago. You missed the opening ceremony of the con you were going to speak at.”
“You guys should’ve woken me up,” Evan says. “I could’ve made the event. The cure only would’ve taken a few minutes.”
Rainer shakes his head. “I told them you’d want that, but Light didn’t allow it. You collapsed from exhaustion. She took it as a hint that you needed a good night’s sleep.”
Right. Usually, Evan appreciates the fact that Sophia Light cares for the well-being of anomalies, but in extreme situations like this, it can lead to her demanding less than she should.
Nothing to do about it now. Any events Evan’s already missed are spilt milk. He needs to focus on what he can still do. “Tell the others I’m awake,” Evan says. “We have lost time to make up for.”
Rainer nods. “The con is still going,” he says. “You missed the event you were supposed to speak at, but they want to put you onto one of the large panels. Not as many attendees, but the panel is about space fantasy books like the Starlight Saga, so hopefully it’ll be pretty dense with infected.”
“When?” Evan asks.
“You have a few hours,” Rainer says.
“I’ll still start getting ready,” Evan says. “If I have time to kill, I should walk the convention floor for a bit. I might be able to get some cures in.”
“I’ll get Light on so you can suggest that to her.” Rainer’s expression shifts as something occurs to him. “First, though, there’s something else you need to know. They tried. The Fifthists. They tried to do a sacrifice.”
“What?”
“There was an event in New York. It was very similar to the ones we’ve been hitting. We stopped them, but it was a near thing. If the Foundation weren’t watching events so closely…”
“They would’ve won,” Evan finishes.
“They would’ve activated the agent, at least.”
“Jesus.”
“We did stop them, though.”
“They’ll try again.”
“And we’ll stop them again.”
“Maybe. Still, how close are we to curing everyone in the world? Less than one percent of the way there? There are still tens of millions of people infected all over the world. How many more tries does that give the Fifthists? What are the odds we’ll stop all of them?”
“We can’t let ourselves give up,” Rainer says. “We did manage to stop the ritual, and it will get harder and harder for them to make attempts as we cure more people. We can win this.”
Evan repeats it to himself a few times. Rainer is right. They can win this. They have to cling to the idea that they can win this, or all really will be lost.
“We need to get Jerry to help,” Evan says.
“That’d be great,” Rainer says. “Light seems to be having a lot of trouble with him, though. As far as I know, she hasn’t made any progress getting his cooperation.”
Of course not. Why does Jerry have to be so stubborn? Is saving the world really not worth—
Evan stops himself. He needs to remember how he felt about the Foundation early on. It took him months to become okay with them.
Then again, he wasn’t staring down a chance to save the entire world. “Let me get on the phone with Light,” Evan says. “I need to talk to her about something.”
“Of course,” Rainer says. “Are you hungry, by the way?”
Evan hadn’t given a single speck of thought to that question, but now that Rainer mentions it, Evan is hungry. Very hungry, actually.
“Yeah,” Evan says. “Some food would be great.”
“What would you like?” Rainer asks. “Everything’s on the menu.”
“Something hardy and filling,” Evan says. “I want it to last me a while.”
Rainer nods. He portals in a large plate, followed by two strips of bacon and covered dishes of eggs, toast, and hash browns, all of it followed by another bottle of ice coffee. “Thanks,” Evan says. “I’ll try to eat quick.”
Jerry
My shift ends, and it’s time for my ‘socialization’ time.
Socialization time has gotten a lot less pleasant lately. As promised, the Jailors have been keeping me and my comrades together. In addition, one other medium-security prisoner has joined us: Harry, the kid the Foundation offered to send to Three Portlands if he could get them to help me.
He was upgraded to medium-security—which has made his living conditions significantly worse—just so he could be placed in our little socialization cohort. Just so he can nag me about helping the Jailors.
I’m not going to do it. No matter how much they bribe me, I’m not going to do it.
I hold that thought in my head as the guards, once again, lead me past the socialization room and into a nearby chamber. It’s not the same one as last time. It’s a smaller interrogation room, with a large screen mounted on one wall.
“What is it this time?” I ask the guards as they direct me to sit. “Whatever it is, it’s not going to work.”
“Just look at the screen.”
I do. It turns on, and it shows Evan. He’s disheveled, wearing street clothes in the back of a Jailor transport.
“Hey, Jerry,” he says.
I don’t respond. Instead, I look directly at the camera in the corner of the room, the one Light is probably watching me through. “This is a violation of our deal,” I tell her. “I was promised no contact with my brother.”
“This wasn’t Light’s idea,” Evan says. “I requested this.”
“I don’t care.”
“Jerry, I need to talk with you. I need you to understand how difficult a situation we’re in. I’ve been running around the country, trying to save the world. I’ve been going from city to city, doing almost nothing but curing people, to the point where I collapsed from exhaustion.”
“Light already told me about your collapse. The idea is amusing, but it changes nothing.”
For just a second, the look on his face betrays that I’ve wounded him, but he renews his resolve. “Did she tell you that the Fifthists made an attempt at their ritual?”
“Attempt?”
“Yes. They tried to perform their sacrifice, the one that would activate the memetic agent.”
The agent that Theo is infected with. The one that could get them to hijack his mind.
“The Foundation was able to stop them, this time,” Evan continues, “but we don’t know where they’re going to strike next. At the pace I’m going at, it could take me years to purge the contagion from the general population. Do you understand what that means? What do you think the odds are of us stopping every attempt they make for years upon years? They only have to succeed once.”
“Sure. The situation is screwed. All the Jailors have to do to get my help is let me go.”
“Jerry—”
“If you’re lying, then I obviously have no reason to make any concessions to them. If things are as bad as you say, then it looks to me like humanity is screwed one way or the other. Knowing that, why shouldn’t I keep my dignity intact?”
“The situation is not doomed!” Evan says. “Stop thinking about everything in absolute terms! I don’t know what the odds of us stopping the Fifthists are, but whatever they are, you can double them. The world needs you. Who the hell are you protecting if you let the world be overtaken by—”
I look back at the security camera. “Still haven’t heard anything about how this isn’t a violation of our deal,” I say to Light. “I thought you liked to be a woman of your word.”
“I prefer to be,” Light says. “Things don’t always work out that way.”
“Well, if your word doesn’t mean shit, how the hell can I trust you to follow through on any deal you make to get my help?”
“Why do you have to make a deal?” Evan asks. “Why can’t you help save the world because it’s the right thing to do? Why is that not enough? Do you really hate the Foundation so much that you’d rather the world die than have us in it?”
I huff. “Maybe I do.”
“I don’t believe you,” Evan says. “I know, deep down, you still care about the people out there. About Mom and Dad, and about other people who are special to yo—”
“Who now think I’m dead thanks to you.”
“Do you want to punish them for that? Punish the whole world? Do they deserve to be brainwashed by the Fifthists because of what happened to you?”
I think about Theo. Am I forsaking him? Am I leaving him to the Fifthists by refusing to help the Foundation?
No. No, I’m not. “You just told me not to think in absolutes,” I say, “but you’re the one framing the issue in black and white terms, as if I were making a straightforward decision between the world living and the world dying. What are the actual odds that my contribution makes the difference between success and failure?”
“How high do they need to be?” Evan asks. “Even a slim chance means a lot when the stakes are so high. The Fifthists have already tried their sacrifice once. They’re going to try again, and again, and again, until it succeeds, or until we purge the public of this meme.”
“Then let me go!” I shout. “That’s all I’ve been demanding since the beginning! As much as I hate you people, I will work with you for the greater good if you just let me go and treat me like a partner instead of an asset! This has never been about my unwillingness to save the world. It’s always been about your unwillingness to see me as anything other than an enemy.”
“You think there’s any parity between what you and the Foundation are demanding?” Evan asks. “All they want is to outfit you with a couple of basic security measures. Some armed guards—probably no different than the Foundation people who’ve been helping me, and a collar that won’t be activated unless you do something stupid.”
“You actually think that’s reasonable?”
“Compared to what you want? Yes! You being free to collaborate with the Serpent’s Hand means they can cure amnestics en masse. It’s as big of a threat to the Veil as the activation of the memetic agent. You are demanding the right to remake the world order. You are holding the whole world hostage so you can demand the Veil be torn down, even though you have no idea who that might hurt.”
“An unveiled world couldn’t possibly be worse than this one!”
“Yes it could! I know you’ve seen how dangerous anomalies can be. There’s one threatening the continued existence of the world right this second! You really think everyone would be better off knowing that we’re a hair’s breadth from disaster? How do you think people would act if they knew that?”
“Maybe they’d take some precautions? Maybe they’d avoid conventions? Maybe they’d cooperate with your efforts to cure them?”
“Or maybe they’d panic and make everything worse.”
I scoff. “I’m not going to argue with you about this. There’s no point in trying to make you see sense. You’re a Jailor. You’ve already chosen a side. There’s nothing I can do to change that.”
“How do you think Mom and Dad would feel about the decision you’re making? How selfish you’re being?”
I lean forward in my chair and I scream. “They would feel exactly the way I do! They would hate the people who took their sons away from them!” I force a smile. “In fact, thank you, Evan. Thank you for reminding me of that, because now I know, for an absolute fact, that I am never going to give you what you want. I am never going to allow myself to be a tool for the Jailors. I do hate you. Both you, my traitorous former brother, and the organization you work for, and if the worst thing I can do to you is sit back and watch you squirm, that’s what I’m going to do!”
My face is tight. I can feel it going hot and red. Evan can see it too, and I can see that he knows I’m telling the truth, both about how I feel and about the fact that I will never help them.
“Even if billions of innocents suffer for it?” Evan asks.
I take deep, seething breaths. Theo’s face flashes through my mind. I picture him serving the Fifthists as a mind-controlled slave. I picture him stuck in their hellscape of a world.
It’s a powerful image. It tempts me to take a deep breath, to ‘calm’ myself, and perhaps I could. If only there were an actual chance of me seeing him again, if only there were a chance of my ‘help’ being rewarded with anything other than a return to my cell.
But there isn’t, and there’s never going to be.
“Just like you’d risk anything for the smallest chance to save the world from the Fifthists,” I say, “I’d risk anything for the smallest chance to save the world from your Veil. If holding out for that possibility means sitting back and watching all this happen, that’s what I’m going to do.”
I stare up at the camera. Not the one in the corner that Light is watching me through, but the one at the top of the screen, so Evan sees me look him dead in the eye.
“You’re telling the truth, aren’t you?” Evan says after a moment. It’s more to himself than to me, like this is a horrible revelation he only now grasps.
There’s no need for me to respond.
“You really are ready to throw the whole world away,” he says.
I don’t respond.
“There’s no more point in talking with you, is there?”
“No, I don’t think there is. In fact, since this conversation is a breach of our agreement, I won’t be helping the Foundation treat any more patients, either. If you can’t uphold your end of the bargain, why the hell should I uphold mine?”
“Don’t blame Light for this,” Evan says. “I badgered the hell out of her to—”
“I don’t care if you threatened to kill her firstborn child. The decision was still hers, and the Foundation’s. You made a promise. You broke it. You’ll suffer the consequences.” Through their respective cameras, both of them can see the rage on my face. They know I’m serious.
“No, we won’t. Innocent people will.”
I don’t say anything in response to that. I don’t need to.
They’re probably going to try the padded cell trick again. I’m going to have to find a way to resist it. I think I can, though. My resolve has strengthened since last time.
“Please,” Evan says. “The world needs you. People need you.”
“I don’t care.”
Evan sheds a tear. “Do you know how much time I spent missing you in the last six years?” Evan asks. “Do you know how badly I’ve wanted to see you again? How happy I was to see you again?”
“Happy?” I ask. “You threw me to the ground and pointed a gun at me!”
“I was doing my job,” Evan says. “It wasn’t safe for me to be open about it then and there, but I was happy to see you, to see that you have my powers, that it’s possible for us to help people together. That’s what I want from you. I don’t care about any of the gestures the Foundation has been using to negotiate with you. I just want to be on a team with you. I want to fight and save the world with you.”
“I don’t want that,” I say. “The only thing I want you to do is suffer. You’re worse than dead to me, and that’s never going to change.”
He has the nerve to cry.
“We’re done here,” I say. “Turn off the screen, and I might consider helping you cure civilians again, eventually.”
Evan is still sobbing when the screen goes dark.
I do my best to take satisfaction in those tears. I’m never going to hurt most of the Jailors, but there’s one Jailor, one MTF member, who I can reduce to a sobbing wreck.
It’s not the revenge I deserve, but it’s probably the only one I’ll get.
I look up at the other camera. “I imagine I’ll be punished for this?” I ask. “Lose my socialization time?”
“No,” Light says. “That was the result of an unrelated deal from the one you’ve withdrawn from.”
“Which is to say, you want to give Jack and that kid more chances to badger me into helping you?”
She doesn’t respond to that.
I chuckle. “You really think they can talk me into it?” I ask. “You really think I’m going to fold now, when you’ve been trying to break me for weeks?”
Light doesn’t answer that question either. I think it’s because she knows perfectly well what the answer is.